i think something that the representatives in d.c. could help out with my state, if anything, is help out with college funds a little bit more. so like not just for sports but for other areas the most important is to bring more community involvement and good energy. the more you bring together the more we'll have a positive life and state and future. >> voices from the states on

cspan. >> earlier this year the president on election integrity. the commission is lead by president pence and kansas secretary of state and for alleged voter fraud. next, senate democrats hold a meeting following the establishment of the commission and concerns it could lead to an infringement in minority communities. this is 90 minutes.

>> thank everyone for being here today. it is incredibly important we be talking about voting and the basic tenant of our democracy in terms of voting rights. voting rights is the essential foundation of our democracy and all of us who are here understand that every citizen who wants to vote is able to cast a vote must be at the top of congress's agenda. at the local level many of us have heard stories about how difficult voting can be, whether it's a grandmother who can't register to vote because she can't find her birth certificate, college students

prevented from registering in the state they go to school or malfunctioning voting machines and voters that have to get back to work and give up and leave the line. we have veseen that over and ov again. 2016 is the first where the full voting was not in effect. since the supreme court's 2013 shell by county decision striking down a key section in the voting rites aing rights ac seen a lot of action on the state and local level. while some states and local communities have improved access to voting others have restricted it.

a number of have been struck down by the courts for being discriminatory. the court refused an appeal on the strict voter id law which was struck down as we know last year by the fourth u.s. circuit court of appeals. in its decision the fourth circuit said that the law would target african americans with almost surgical precision but we can't just count on the courts doing the right thing. that's why democrat s continue o call to increase the opportunity for people to exercise the right to vote in our country. chief among our proposals is the

voting rights advancement act cosponsored by nearly the entire democratic caucus. the trump administration continues to promote the unphoned narrative of widespread voter fraud with its so called and protecting voting rights should be bipartisan. i think all of us feel that way. i am very disappointed republicans in congress have refused to hold any hearings on updating the voting rights act and on the state of voting rights in america and that's why we are here doing our own hearing. senate democrats will continue to do all we can to protect the

right to vote for tens of millions of americans and to find ways to eliminate restrictions on voting. i know it will be a very productive discussion. we are honor today have you taking the time to be with us today. i would like to turn with my college who is the ranking member on senate rules committee to say a few words. >> thank you very much.

so i'm glad you are willing to have this discussion about what's happening with voting. we have seen photo id requirements in wisconsin where we now know it can be hard to get an id in the first place. this isn't just going on in one state. this is a systematic effort across our country. what does the administration do? they make things work by establishing the commission on election integrity. this is not about integrity when you look at what they are doing. in fact it can make things worse by gathering information in one location that we try to avoid

when we have decentralized voting. i don't think it was an accident either. they are simply making people concerned about voting. we have heard that people actually took away their own registrations because they didn't want to have their data shared. it would require state by state when they turn 18. these are not radical proposals. these are what we should all

support because our democracy is founded on a simple principal that citizens get to participate. we should be naking making it e and not harder. >> thank you. we asked jane to make opening statements. there was a hearing in new hampshire. last week they both were a part of this and we would like very much to get an update they held

a hearing and it did the opposite. and i think as many here would agree the assertions about illegal immigrants and illegal voting in the 2016 election really has zero evidence to support them. the vice chair of that commission did a column where he made allegations in 2016, the election and health cahillary cn the electoral vote and said we allowed out of staters to vote. he did not understand our laws

and he was corrected by the secretary of state of both new hampshire and maine. we have seen that it is to lay the ground work. we saw that at the hearing last week in new hampshire. the people testifying before that panel recommended things like thumbprints on photo id's, criminal background checks before people would be allowed to register to vote. i think one of the important points to when politicians without evidence. you know, we had a hearing earlier today in the foreign relations committee. john huntsman who has been nominated was -- it was on his nomination and we talked about the russian interference and he

said something that i think is really important. it speaks to what happens when elected officials undermine our process. to sew seeds of doubt or sew seeds of doubt is the highest level of injury. so i thought he said that very well. it points to the fact that we cannot overstate the dangers that lie in spreading this kind of misinformation it so to

persuade them and thank you to all of the witnesses for helping us to shed light on what the real intent of this administration is. >> thank you. i think he will be with us at some point. he wants to speak to his vote by mail act as well. we certainly look forward to that. we are going to turn now to very very important guests that are with us. we have the president of the legal defense fund. the naacp has worked tirelessly to expand democracy and eliminate racial disparities. welcome. anita is the president of the

leadership conference on civil and human rights, promotes civil right of all people in the united states. she was the former head of the civil rights division at the department of justice. a great friend from detroit who heads the -- who is president of the detroit grant of the naacp, are we still the largest chapter? i believe we are. i know we have the largest annual dinner at which you are all welcomed to attend at any given time 12 to 14,000 people at a sit-down dinner. it is a powerful dinner. a powerful dinner. and he is a respected civil rights leader in detroit and southeastern michigan and in our

country. he has seen firsthand what voter franchisement and voter suppression can do to a community. thomas signs, we are so pleased to have you with us as president and general council through your litigation and advocacy work it has been working to secure access to the voting booths for all citizens. and last but not least natalie is former west virginia secretary of state and manager of state advocacy on the voting rights and elections project. during her tenure she immerged as a leader on election modernization. as you can tell we have a terrific panel and we'll start with you.

>> there we go. thank you for all of the senators that are here. i would like to explain why the current moment congressional action and to address the issues we heard from the threat to a poor and central piece of our deproxy ad democra democracy. the organization i lead, the naacp legal defense fund has been in the fight since the founding in 1940, one of our earliest successes was challenging the all white democratic primary in texas in

1944. since that time we have continued until today working on this urgent issue we regard as to the full citizenship of african americans. americans have started a national conversation about white supreme si. the conversation is long overdue. last week congress approved calling on the justice department to investigate hate groups. those are appropriate and welcomed but they are incomplete. we cannot have a full conversation without also talking about the right to vote and we cannot fully defeat unless congress to ensure state

sponsored discrimination. the truth is intimidation and disinfranchise has aulsz been for decades. states and local jurisdictions suppressed polls with needless registration requirements. they use proof of citizenship. it is the same discrimination in different forms. a federal court recognized when it found that the voter i d law and that is one decision of many. since 2014 there have been at least ten federal court decisions finding that states or local governments intentionally discriminated when enacting legislation. this is a watershed home. that means legislatures conve convening and passing laws for the purpose of disenfran

cheesing. it includes cases from louisiana, wisconsin, north caroli carolina. we add to this of course the president's so called election integrity commission that has been discussed. it is the subject of seven lawsuits and we add to it also the attorney general. we are witnessing a kind of perfect storm in which the attorney general are also openly hostile and actively supporting suppression. they are taking their time and the states are doing what the reconstruction congress knew they would do no state shall or states are prohibited from.

they included enforcement clauses in each of the civil war amendments entrusting you rngs congress with the to enforce rights to give pull citizenship to african americans. the bipartisan congress was the most effective in our nation's history. but now we need so much more. we need the voting rights act to be restored. we need the legislation many of you that will expand voting. we need your oversight. we need you to look closely at the appropriations and we need you to speak regularly and clearly about the importance of the right to vote for every american. thank you. >> thank you very much. welcome. >> thank you so much and all of you for convening this very important event.

i'm really honored to be here today. i am the president and ceo. it is a coalition of more than 200 organizations. we have coordinated all of the national lobbying efforts. including the 1965 voting rights act. voting rights are today just under assault, plain and simple. you heard -- everyone knows about the decision and about the texas courts speaking clearly about the race discrimination of those laws. about ten voting rites that said they found intentional in the way that states reacted in enact restrictive voting laws. i don't want to get into that. i want to get in on something which is sessions justice department, retreats from the

historic and bipartisan. it has always been an aggressive area in the past. in february the justice department reversed a long-standing litigating decision. it was intentionally discriminatory. federal courts continue to uphold that finding despite the range in position. on june it was announced the civil rights sent an unprecedented letter. it was never before asking for extensive information in what appears to be a prelude. in august of the justice department filed a supreme court reversing its position, a very long standing position arguing that it would be easier to remove registered voters. we talked about president

trump's advisory commission on election integrity which was set up to investigate the absurd allegations that millions had voted illegally in the 2016 election. we know that the commissions membership tells you all that you need to know to the other commissioners who have devoted their entire careers to voter suppression and conspiracy. and in fact last week he was identified as the senator of an e-mail to the justice department originally before the formation urging that no dem drocrats be permitted to serve on the commission. this is plain and simple for everyone to see. the commissions attempt to create a national database should alarm any of us who value the integrity of our elections. that's why you saw so many speak

out. working hand in hand with other civil rights we have urged that congress deny the efforts that many of you are making to pursue that strategy. it also, though, cuts the president's anti voting rights crusade cuts across his agenda. his judicial nominations all demonstrate the administration's commitment to thwarting full access to the franchise. tomorrow the senate judiciary committee is holding a hearing for thomas far of north carolina, who has had a long history of defending voter suppression efforts and we urge the senators to oppose his confirmation. but we know it's not enough to play defense. there are a number of pieces of legislation that the leadership conference coalition has been vocally in support of from the voter empowerment act to the democracy restoration act to the automatic voter registration act where we in the states as you said, have seen a lot of momentum, bipartisan momentum, and somehow in congress we're only seeing democratic sponsorship, and we

hope that will change. along with these measures, we need a fully funded 2020 census. it's among the most significant civil rights issues we face today. accurate census data is proportionate voting representation for all americans, and we are working hard to ensure that there is a fair appropriations, especially to ensure historically undercounted populations are counted where there is such fear among immigrant communities in particular right now. and then we urge, finally, for congress to exercise its oversight powers to closely monitor the voting rights work coming out of the justice department. and we hope that also you'll find ways to ensure timely responses to really -- [ inaudible ] letters. we know that voting rights has to transcend partisanship and we are there behind you to do everything we can in the long haul fight to ensure that everyone's right to vote is protected. so thank you. >> thank you very much. reverend anthony, welcome.

>> thank you, senator. and let me thank all of you for being here and for calling this hearing. i think one of the prime benefits of this hearing is the fact that you're holding it. one of the reasons people are not voting is because they do not have hope. they do not believe that their votes are making any differences. because of the fact of what we see happening nationally today. years ago, the great freedom fighter and women's suffragettes was speaking in upstate new york. while she was speaking, an elderly white gentleman in the rear end said to her, oh, woman, what you're saying to me means about as much to me as that of a flea buzzing around the rear end of an elephant. so she looked at the gentleman and said oh, man, you might not like my buzzing, but i'm guaranteed to keep you scratching. it is important that we continue to keep the proverbial elephant scratching today. we are here to keep the elephant scratching because of the foes

of voting rights and people empowerment. they must itch from our persistent and determined efforts to eliminate barriers to voting booths. we must expose the illegitimate political schemes designed to frustrate people's will and right to vote. it is important to remember and reflect upon the fact that we see what we see on our national level. one is not inspired by what we see. as a matter of fact, it has a very opposite significance. they do not inspire the people, they depress the people. in my own state just last year, the state legislature tried to introduce a new voter law. that would have required state-approved photo identification. any individual who did not have it would have been required to bring i.d. to their local clerk's office within ten days of the election. failure to do so would have resulted in the disqualification of the voter, and thus would, in fact, nullify the vote. if hard enough to get folks to stand in line to vote. so they're not going to come

back ten days after an election to prove that they did vote. its implementation would have resulted in many citizens in the african-american community, students and seniors, not being eligible to vote, based on finances and travel to secure identification that was acceptable to the state. that bill was beat back by the pressure of the people, and it was put off the table. there are still a hunger -- racist hunger to bring it back and bring other bills like that to the table. this so-called 13-member independent citizens commission, the so-called election protection or integrity commission that was instituted by the president, to us is no more than one of the biggest scams that we have ever seen in the u.s. political history. the fact that this committee is composed of all those persons, quite frankly, for the most part, kris kobach, hans, ken

blackwell, jay christian adams, folks like bill gardner from new hampshire, who -- in new hampshire have gone -- and senator shaheen knows recently just had this law that basically is going to suppress some of the young people, students and disadvantaged by exercising their right to vote as a result of making it more difficult for them to get to the polls. it is important that as the founder of take your souls to the polls from michigan that we consistently have and update and do engage in the voting rights advancement act of 2017. designed to repair, restore and strengthen the voting rights act of 1965. we urge the house and senate to endorse and support hr-2978 and s-1419. among those, other things we believe that is important is to update to cover states with a historical pattern practicing discrimination. guarantee that no last-minute voting change will adversely affect voters.

protect voters from the voting changes that are most likely to impact people of color and language minorities. enhance the ability to apply preclearance review when needed. support legislation and local communities that would allow the redrawing of district lines for communities to ensure the political representation and eliminate gerrymandering. we have an initiative right now in michigan that is structured to put a bill on the ballot that would allow us to redraw the district lines, not by the politicians, but by the local community folk. increase same-day registration. and voting. the use of social media must become a major priority. text messaging, texting your vote. facebook, take a look at your vote. snapchat, snap your fingers and vote. twitter. your vote is but a tweet away. instagram. you can instantly change your own future. increase funds for updating equipment and training for states and local communities. there was a recent audit where a detroit was accused of having some voter fraud.

the audit found there was no fraud, there was outdated machines, that there was training that needed to occur. we suggest we have a national holiday for national elections, providing more time for voter participation. increase time to participate in early and absentee voting. there must be a renewed effort implemented within our educational system to teach the benefits and responsibilities of participation in the american democratic process. the structure about government and the ability to participate in electoral process should be taught, beginning in elementary through the high school. the emphasis must not be placed on political party or ideology, but on responsibility and civic duty. we're reminded on the words of alexis who said generations ago, the greatness of america lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation but rather her ability to repair her thoughts. it's time to repair our thoughts. thank you. >> thank you very much, reverend anthony, for those comments. mr. saenz, good to have you with us. >> thank you, senator. and thank you, all of you, for

conducting this critically important hearing at this time. the mission is to promote the civil rights of all latinos living in the united states. we will celebrate our 50th anniversary next year in 2018. from almost the very beginning of our organization's existence, focusing on the vote and securing access to the ballot and fair election systems have been top priorities. we join our colleagues in condemning the election integrity commission, which was borne out of donald trump's scurrilous mythology about illegal voting, fraudulent voting in the 2016 election. that like many of these allegations, focused on the latino community. because of the actual and projected growth of the latino community, too often our community is the target of attempts to suppress votes either through restricting access to the ballot or registration or through election systems that deprive the community of a meaningful vote.

so we join in condemning the commission and urge you to look at its funding and urge you to look at its bias, and urge you to ensure that it cannot engage in the intimidation it seems designed to create. i have in the past characterized this commission as an area 51 commission. because voter fraud is about as common as documented ufo sightings in this country. but today i'd like to focus on the latino community's experience after shelby county. and in particular, with the lack of preclearance coverage of the entire state of texas, the entire state of arizona, and portions of california. this has impacted the work of maldef in palpable ways. we have had to redouble our efforts to challenge election systems and ballot access provisions that restrict the rights of latinos. in some cases, we have had to leave the pursuit of litigation against texas voter i.d., for example, to our very capable colleagues. but our own lack of participation, because we had to direct our efforts elsewhere, has affected the overall goal of preserving voting rights.

i will give you one example of what we have faced. the city of pasadena, texas, very shortly, after the shelby county decision was announced, decided through its mayor to change its structure of government. from a city council consisting of eight members elected from districts, to a structure of six members elected from districts and two elected at large. it undertook that change pretty clearly to prevent the growing latino community, which was on the cusp of electing a majority of the districted councilmembers, from controlling the city council. we had to challenge that change successfully. but only through a very arduous and expensive pretrial preparation, experts and all the rest and a lengthy trial. in the end, the judge concluded that there was not only a dill utive, unlawful effect on the latino vote but the change was intended to have that effect on

the latino community in pasadena, texas. it resulted in what we believe to be the first contested bail-in order subjecting a jurisdiction to preclearance in the future. my point is, it took much work and cost to achieve that, and for one small city, in texas. prior to shelby county, maldef relied heavily on the deterrent effect of preclearance, not just in coverage jurisdictions but uncovered jurisdictions, as well, which paid attention to what electoral changes were blocked by department of justice or the dc federal court, and paid attention to the changes that were required through the preclearance review before attempting to make similar changes in their own jurisdictions. we no longer have that deterrent effect. it affects not only maldef, but i want to identify one of the frequently uncited beneficiaries of the preclearance process. and that's the taxpayers of the defendant jurisdictions. preclearance saved those defendant jurisdictions literally billions of dollars

over the course of the time preclearance was in effect. why? because without preclearance, they would have been subject to litigation, and in the end, when they lose, they would be subject not only to paying their own lawyers and experts, but the other sides, as well. so i urge you and to urge your colleagues to see the civil -- the preclearance provisions, not simply as they have been accurately described civil rights provision ever written into federal law, but also as one of the first and most effective alternative dispute resolution systems ever written in federal law. it's one of the unexplained ironies of policy making today that some of those who embrace adr in the context of consumers and employment are not supporting adr when it comes to the vote. in fact, like adr, preclearance saved billions of dollars for the jurisdictions that would otherwise be the targets of litigation and would ultimately have to pay not only their own cost, but the other side's, as well.

we need this adr mechanism reintroduced and we urge you to support a new formula to apply preclearance across the board. >> thank you very much. and welcome, natalie tennant. maem secretary. so glad you are with us. >> thank you so much, senator. i appreciate being here. and i appreciate all of you for the invitation and having this hearing and this meeting, as well. as you know, i'm the former secretary of state of west virginia, where i took very seriously my job of expanding voting rights for the citizens of west virginia. and i did it with a forward-thinking approach. and now i have that opportunity to continue working on those initiatives at the brennen center for justice out of nyu school of law. and i'll be joined today by my colleague, nicole austin hillary, with whom many of you work. and so, as we talk about some of these initiatives and the concerns, obviously, that we have. what can be done? i want to share some examples with you, just a piece of what we did in west virginia.

west virginia had early voting back in 2002. in 2009 we implemented satellite voting or community voting, and it was during the early voting period and it expanded voting opportunities and many people now refer to them across the country as vote centers. what they do is they allow county election officials to offer additional early voting locations away from the primary courthouse locations and so for rural counties where it's a 45 minute to an hour drive to your county seat, this obviously offers much needed accessibility and convenience and a voter from any precinct can go into the center, be given the appropriate ballot and then votes it. so early voting reduces the stress on the voting system on election day. it alleviates administrative burdens and reduces voter frustration. also in west virginia we modernize the election process

through online voter registration that upgraded the outdated paper based systems and increased convenience because it took voter registration to where people are, on their phones, on their digital -- in their hand held devices as the reverend was talking about. automatic voter registration is a common sense, bipartisan approach that we passed in west virginia in 2016. now with avr, eligible citizens who interact with government agencies are registered to vote unless they choose to decline. and the agencies then transfer the voter registration information electronically to election officials. so what this does it makes for a seamless process that's more convenient, less error prone for both voters and government officials. and it's an easy, simple yet effective technology solutions that is possible to protect voting rights by making sure

that we're eliminating errors in registration. this innovative policy that the brennan center developed more than a decade ago boosts voter registration, it cleans the rolls, it makes it easier to vote, reduces the potential for voter fraud, all the while saving money. so why is it so important to get people to register today vote? -- registered to vote? pretty simple question. not only does it get them to the polls but this is the true beginning of voter engagement, because think about it, when someone is registered to vote, they begin to receive election mailings whether they are voter guidelines, voter guides, sample ballots from their state or local election officials or information from candidates and organizations themselves. they are now a more informed electorate. with registered voters, resources are shifted from voter registration drives to get out the vote efforts that encourage

voters to participate, and that means there's more interaction also. an example of that can be going door to door and knocking on doors and engaging voters where they live on their front porch. it allows that. and from an administrative standpoint, election officials have a steadier stream of people who are registering rather than that huge crush at the end, at the deadline of voter registration and that crush can cause mistakes, overworked employees, the need for temp workers and frustrated voters. madam chairman, there are ways to defend and expand the rights of eligible americans and we at the brennan center as always are ready to work and assist in any way that we can do, so i'm looking forward to this discussion that we're having and i'll be willing to take questions also. thank you again for the invitation. >> thank you very much to all of you and you'll have an opportunity to ask questions. i'm, first, though going to turn

for a moment to senator wyden. i spoke about your vote by mail act before you were here but you have been such a leader on this we want to give you a moment to speak about that. >> madam chair, thank you. just as a deference to my colleagues waiting so long, i'll going to keep this real brief make a quick comment and then open up a couple of quick matters for the record. i do want, as the chair has indicated to give everybody in america the chance to vote by mail. we've had this now for a fair number of years in our state. this empowers voters, we haven't had problems with fraud. it's efficient. reality is, much of the country is already going to this. we don't have excuse voting and all this kind of thing in a lot of places. so what we say in this legislation, i think there are 19 senators who are now cosponsors of the bill. it's for every federal election, eligible voters would receive a ballot in the mail. the federal government covers the cost of mailing ballots to registered voters through the postal service.

states can keep their polling places if they wish, but states that choose to do an entirely vote by mail system, in my view, are going to see their costs drop significantly and states that keep their polling centers would produce a paper ballot so that voters again have a paper trail for what they're doing. and i think because i want to be sensitive to my colleagues who have been waiting so long, i'd just like to ask for two of you to answer questions for the record so i don't interrupt my colleagues, ms. tennant you've been doing good work on mail and voter registration, it would be helpful to have in your writing, we'll get it to you, your views on how voting by mail and automatic voter registration helps to reverse the kind of voter suppression efforts that we have seen in the past. we'll give that to you in writing. you're doing very good work. we appreciate it. same with respect to you ms. gupta.

i am on the intelligence committee, one of the other hats i wear. cyber security people i talk with all recommend in connection with this general kind of topic of improving ways to have people vote, vote by mail to have risk limiting audits of elections. my understanding is that in the past you have been interested in routine audits to promote public confidence and trust in our elections, and in the interest of time, if both of you could just take those questions, get it to the chair in writing, we really appreciate your good work. we'll get you the questions in writing because i've seen you wondering if you remember everything i said. we appreciate your answers. to the colleagues who have been gracious to let me just barge in when you've been waiting, my thanks to all of you. >> thank you very much for your great work in this area. i'll open it up and ask reverend

anthony, in the community and on the ground, what changes have you seen in terms of access to voting and what's the tangible specific things that we need to be doing to make sure more people have the access to vote? we've talked about online voting and vote by mail and other things, but thinking of the very basic things about equipment and machines and the kinds of things, what have you seen? >> thanks, senator. some of the fundamental things are equipment update. there needs to be an increase in funds to provide current equipment in greater numbers. the polls need to be expanded relative to people being able to access their polls in their local communities. the issue of funding for training, more funds need to be applied for training relative to

poll workers and updating that kind of thing. other thing is this, senator, the issue of gerrymandering districts is very potent. that's real. we have found that even in the state of michigan, certain people are outvoting the other folks, but because of the way the district lines have been drawn, the votes are diluted. michigan is one of the worst states in terms of the evidence of gerrymandering that we've seen. north carolina is up there and a whole bunch of other but michigan can wave its own flag. we've been doing some work with folks in terms of the ballot proposal that i mentioned but i think that even if we are able to increase the vote, which we are working on, the way the lines are drawn it makes it difficult to win elections, because they have been rat packed and stacked against local

communities. senator, the training, the equipment, the time period for early voting, same day voter registration and voter participation, those are some tangible things that i think we can do and need to do, not only in detroit and michigan but all across the country. >> the other thing is empowering our young people, detroit naacp does a tremendous job in reaching out to young people and so on. when we look at what we need to be doing to engage and empower young people to register and to vote, what would you suggest? >> i think social media has got to be employed much more so than it is. and i tried to speak to that, you know, respectful of my colleagues as the senator was, but the older, more mature community goes to facebook.

the younger, more progressive, energetic community goes to twitter, snapchat, instagram, that's where they're at, and so that's how we're going to capture many of them. that's why i mentioned things like text messaging, texting your vote, facebook take a look at your votes, snapchat, these are programs. snap your fingers and vote. twitter, your vote is but a tweet away. instagram, you can instantly change your own future. those are -- the social media approach has to be employed. i am the originator of take your souls to the polls. and that was -- is a program that goes door-to-door knocking, door knockers on the porch conversations, we use social media but now we're increasing that because the way you get to them is to go where they're at. they're not coming to you. you got to go to them and the way you go to them is where they live. they live on the cell phones.

they live on this medium. so i think that if the democratic voting committee and your commission is going to make any significant impact, it has to be in the area of social media and it has to be in the area of what does this mean for me? how does this improve and affect my life personally? i think that's the message we need to drive. >> thank you very much. ms. gupta, turning to the back to the subject of the so-called election integrity commission, could you speak a little more about the biggest concerns about the extensive amount of information, the kinds of information that is being asked for in terms of voter records and peoples' individual information and why that's concerning. >> sure. originally when for initial inquiries went out, they were asking for such wide data including social security numbers and data that is

incredibly violative of people's privacy, it's why you saw in colorado, thousands of people deregistering, we don't know the full number across the country of people who have already deregistered out of concern that their data is going to be kept in a centralized warehouse in the white house now on a computer. and so there is a lot of concern about how the state is getting -- the data is getting collected and how it will be kept. one of the things we need to focus on is, while some of this data is publicly available and states absolutely have the right to share that data, the concern is what happens with that data once it's been -- once it's been collected. kris kobach has long had a program called cross-check where he under the name of stopping mass voter purge is trying to cross compare to ensure there aren't double voters or people voting twice in the same election and the like, and while that's obviously a noble cause, that database has an extremely high

error rate. so much so that states like oregon and florida took themselves out of that database because of the error rate. the danger is that whatever database gets collected, that it will then be used as grounds to purge voters unlawfully off the roles without sufficient checks and guard rails around that. the initial letter also went out without any guard rails about how that data could be used or stored, who would have access to it and in an age where we're so deeply concerned about hacking into our election, having the centralized database on a white house computer certainly does not assuage those concerns, it's why you saw people like general mckenzie write an op ed about the national security dangers of this. i think there's a lot of concerns right now about how this data is going to be collected and used. >> thank you very much. i was turning to senator

klobuchar. >> some of the other colleagues are welcome to go. >> thank you very much and senator hassan is next. >> thank you, senator. stabinow. thank you all for being here and for the work that you do. voting is our most essential and fundamental right and we have to do everything we can to protect that right. and i am as discouraged as the next person about what we have seen from this administration and from the pence commission but i am really proud to be standing with all of you in this fight and with my colleagues in the senate and throughout the country. i wanted to turn back for a moment to the events in new hampshire last week when the pence commission came to my state. we heard some very troubling testimony at that commission meeting, including a proposal to consider using background check system we use for gun purchases

as a way of screening voters. even more disturbing were suggestions that when burdens like poll taxes and literacy tests were in place, voter turnout was far higher than it is now. to be clear, poll taxes and literacy tests were among the tools used in the jim crowe era to prevent minorities from voting. and they worked because they kept turnout very low among black voters in the south. fortunately we have outlawed this in the south between 1964 and 2012. you spoke about poll taxes and literacy tests in your testimony. could you expand a bit on how the very misguided version of history that we heard at the pence commission in new hampshire last week distorts

the reality of how voter suppression operates and about how new voter suppression tools are also aimed at reducing turnout among specific populations such as minorities and young people. >> thank you, senator. one of the most disturbing things about the pence kobach commission is it's extraordinary cynicism which was fully on display in new hampshire last week, the idea that poll taxes and literacy tests somehow improved or increased voter participation turns history on its head. both poll taxes and literacy tests were voter suppression tools of the 1950s and '60s and they were designed to ensure that african-americans could not register to vote and participate in the political process. as you point out, they were very effective in doing so. the elimination of these tests and the recognition of these tests as voter suppression barriers were really centered around a very important reality and that is that voting is the expression of citizenship in

this country and that citizenship does not mean one has to be able to have money, to pay to vote, citizenship does not require one to be literate or even literate to a certain level. citizenship comes with the fact that you are either born or naturalized in this country. and to attach any conditions on to citizenship for the purpose of exercising the right to vote, violates that fundamental truth and what we see today since the shelby decision with the kind of voter i.d. laws -- ironically, doing the background check is so fascinating that is used for guns, is really extraordinary, it actually marries together two things that are deeply pernicious. it marries together our broken criminal justice system which disproportionately affects african-american and latinos, to the effort of voter suppression, attempting essentially to use

the overcriminalization that is visited on african-americans and in african-american communities as yet another means to disenfranchise voters and it's also true that this has the effect of doing precisely what we heard about earlier which is there is something happening with this commission that i think requires greater urgency and it's why this hearing is so important. every day this commission continues foments a sense of cynicism and insecurity within the public, who you want to come out and vote. every day that the government is allowed to collect this information, hold this information on a server in the white house, use private e-mails to share this information, make the kind of ahistorical claims that you describe, openly and notoriously and continue its work, we just get up and go on the next day, the message is being sent to african-americans, many of whom lived through the civil rights movement, who lived through this era in which we had to hold up a mirror to america to see itself and it makes them cynical about whether they should continue to participate

in the political process. and so there is a sense of urgency, i would just say, around the dismantling of this phoney commission, and i hope in this discussion we'll talk about what can be done, actually, to do that. >> and ms. gupta, just briefly if you can. >> yeah. i would just add that the reality is that even if this commission is disbanded, they are going to issue a report of some sort that is going to hyperinflate and mislead as they did last week like kris kobach did last week out of new hampshire claiming that the 2016 election conducted in new hampshire contained a lot of undetected voter fraud and i just think it's really important to talk about how insulting last week's testimony was on this poll tax kind of ahistorical distortion of history in the face of the fact that kris kobach had a long-standing antiimmigrant, anti-latino agenda in arizona, and that --

he walked in and has been known to want to amend the national voter registration act to lower the burden of proof for states to purge voters. and there's serious litigation now in ohio which is now the subject of the supreme court case and in georgia on this very topic, and the u.s. census says that minorities are represented in 85 of the 100 most common last names. a lot of those folks are going to have latino last name and are going to be targeted as a result of his efforts, and i think it's something we should be keeping very careful eye on. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. we're going back and forth in a vote so we'll get senator coons in here. >> thank you, senator klobuchar and thank you to you and senator stabenow for convening this today. and thank you for each of our five witnesses today for your willingness to come and share your experience with us. i am deeply frustrated by the judiciary committee's failure to

hold a hearing but i am grateful for this chance to talk with you about voting rights and about the situation of voting rights and voter suppression in the united states today. i think it is important to the future of our democracy at the same time that we're trying to get to the bottom of what happened with interference from a foreign power. we also need to be clear-eyed about ongoing actions domestically to try and use alleged concerns about voter integrity to, in fact, suppress voter participation, voter registration, voter activity and we are in the late stages of a vote. so i'll try and be focused. ms. ifill, if you could, during this administration we've already seen that the civil rights division backed down from enforcing the voting rights act after six years of litigating the case. the justice department dropped its claim that texas' voter i.d. law was passed with intent to discriminate and less than two months later a federal judge found the law was passed with such intent. why do you think the civil rights division would have abandoned a meritorious claim of intentional race discrimination?

>> well, the attorney general jeff sessions has long been in opposition to the aggressive and vigorous prosecution of the voting rights act, and so it was no surprise to us. we were cocounsel with the attorney general on that case that there would be less enthusiasm about continuing to prosecute the case. but i think the decision to abandon the intentional discrimination claim was actually a very particular one. the intentional discrimination claim carries with it the possibility of a very particular remedy under the voting rights act, and that remedy is bail-in, which we heard mr. saenz talk about earlier. that is the ability, the possibility of returning preclearance to a jurisdiction that has been found to engage in intentional discrimination. the state of texas probably has the worst record of any state in the united states in terms of judicial decisions and

finding intentional discrimination in congressional redistricting and in other areas and so it faces and faced and continues to face the very real possibility of a bail-in. and in my view, the attorney general hoped to undermine that important remedy that would have allowed the residents of texas to be protected against the legislature's intentionally discriminatory acts. >> you previously led the civil rights division within the department of justice. when in your view would it be appropriate for to change a position in similar case and as ms. ifill suggests, is there any further reason to believe that what happened here was an attempt to avoid liability under what remains of the voting rights act and the bail-in provision. >> i would have to say that i agree with ms. ifill's analysis on that. it was fairly extraordinary for the justice department to reverse that position after career prosecutors in the civil rights division had for six years prosecuted aggressively a

claim with private plaintiffs that texas had engaged in intentional racial discrimination in enacting its voter i.d. law and had prevailed through numerous federal court decisions before the new justice department had withdrew that claim. it was an unprecedented action that i think very much was an effort to avoid -- to avoid bail-in and it just turned out that the federal courts have continued to consider the decision disagreed with this justice department and vindicated the career lawyers, it was also notable that none of the career lawyers who had actually toiled away for years on that case through trials and hearings signed the substantive papers that withdrew that claim. >> let me just ask a closing question if i might because i know we've got other senators eager to ask. ms. gupta, the fourth circuit also held north carolina post shelby voter i.d. case targeted african-americans with almost surgical precision.

that's a quote. and those changes were passed by the state legislature with racially discriminate intent. how can we help americans appreciate that what may seem like technical or minor changes to voting laws are, in fact, attempts to discriminate against fellow americans and bar them from those foundational right in a democracy which is the right to vote? >> i think it's a good question. i think there's a tremendous amount of misunderstanding of how judges reach conclusions of intentional discrimination in both the north carolina case and the texas voter i.d. case but i would add the texas redistricting case as well. we now have a substantial number of judges at both the appellate level and district court level who have reached conclusions that these attempts to suppress the vote are motivated by intentional discrimination and no matter how much the sessions justice department may seek to prevent those findings, they real, they're findings by judges that have been appointed of presidents of both parties and they're significant because of

the size of these states. texas, the second most populous state in the country. i think we can understand why jeff sessions would want to prevent that state in particular from being subject to a bailin order subjecting it to preclearance yet again. i think we need to make sure the public understands how judges and how many judges have reached these careful conclusions after presentation through trial of substantial evidence on both sides. >> well i want to thank the whole panel and i'll thank senator stabenow again. for your leadership in convening this important hearing. thank you for the opportunity to be with you. >> thank you, senator coons, very much and apologize there is a vote going on so we're all going back and forth trying to do our best to be two places at once. senator warren? thank you very much, senator stabenow, for convening this hearing and thank you all for being here. the right to vote is under attack in this country and since

the supreme court gutted the voting rights act, voter suppression efforts have sharply accelerated. these new barriers are designed to shut out african-americans, latinos, the elderly, students and any other targeted groups to get them out of the democratic process. that is alarming enough, but now instead of protecting voters from voter suppression, the president of the united states is using the power of his office to -- donald trump lost the -- to advance voter suppression. donald trump lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million vote. he is president only because of the rules of the electoral college and he's pretty sensitive about that. and he has struck back with the claim that he lost the popular vote only because millions of people voted illegally. now, ms. tennant, you served as the secretary of state of west virginia, you currently lead state advocacy work for the brennan center which examines

these issues. is there any evidence to back up the president's claim that millions of people voted illegally? >> no. >> okay. >> and i don't mean to flippant about that. >> no. that's an answer. >> when those claims came about the brennan center was on it. almost immediately and issued a report called noncitizen voting, the missing millions where they analyzed information from the local election administrators, they went down into those who were administering the elections and were able to debunk the claims. >> okay. so you've looked at the data. let me ask you a different question. according to our best available data on this, how prevalent is the phenomenon of individuals engaging in voting fraud? >> it is rare. and when you look at a consensus of reports and

investigations, not just from the brennen center but other organizations, other advocates as well, you see that that rate of illegal voting is extremely rare. >> let me ask you what is more probable, someone engaging in voter fraud or someone getting struck by lightning? >> this is a fact that the brennan center's put out so you must follow us on twitter like the reverend does. >> you bet. >> being struck by lightning. >> being struck by lightning. i just want to be clear on this. so there are no facts to back up the president's claim, so the president decided to establish a commission to study voter fraud, a commission that seems entirely focused on promoting and justifying state level voter suppression. so i just want to ask a little bit about those state level efforts. miss ifill, since 2010, how many states have passed laws to make it harder for citizens to vote? >> 20. >> 20. and have any states advanced voting laws that are so

aggressively illegal that they have been invalidated by federal courts? >> oh, many. and just since 2014, ten of those decisions have been ones in which federal courts including some of the most conservative federal courts in this country have found that states or local jurisdictions intentionally enacted laws for the purpose of discriminating against african-american and latino voters. >> so they found actual intent. >> intentional discrimination. >> intentional discrimination. >> ms. gupta, the civil rights division at the department of justice is supposed to police unconstitutional efforts to suppress the vote. has the trump administration's civil rights division demonstrated that it takes the problem of voter suppression seriously? >> it has taken unprecedented action to reverse long-standing positions that career lawyers were litigating to establish just how voter suppression laws

were working in that they were racially discriminatory. so in a number of cases including obviously the texas i.d. case which i've discussed, but also in the husted case had actually reversed positions that were aimed at approving a deep factual record to establish voter suppression in the enactment of those laws. so it would be the opposite. >> so the department of justice has moved in exactly the opposite direction on voter suppression. instead of protecting voters, they're helping the states in terms of suppressing the vote? >> that appears to be the case and there's a lot of concern now about the june letter that they sent out on trying to get information from state about national voter purging efforts and so we are anticipating more along those lines as well. >> okay. more and more americans are worried about widespread voter fraud. and i don't blame them. the idea of widespread,

coordinated effort to steal elections is really scary, and it is totally made up. but when the president of the united states uses his bullhorn to advance this theory, then a lot of people start to pay attention to it. and i'll be blunt, i don't expect the president to change. i don't expect jeff sessions who has made a career out of undermining civil rights protections to change, but they are not the only public officials in this country. 11 years ago, the senate passed the voting rights act by a vote of 98-0, and it is time for public officials at every level of government to start leading again on this issue. if we care about bringing this country together, then all americans must have an equal vote in our democracy, and that means we could pass a new voting rights advancement act and other

bills to protect the right to vote. we could conduct oversight over the department of justice specifically, the civil rights division, and make sure they're enforcing our voting laws. we should be doing everything we can to avoid giving legitimacy to the president's sham election integrity commission. so we've got work to do on our side, too, to make sure that america understands the problem in this country is voter suppression. thank you, madam chairman. >> thank you very much, senator warren and i was thinking that based on your exchange with ms. tennant that maybe we need a commission on the impact of being struck by lightning. [ laughter ] >> you'll have more people. >> that's right. that's right. i'd like to turn now to senator duckworth, who is the author of preregistration of voters everywhere.

did i get that right? preregistering of voters everywhere act. thank you for your leadership. >> thank you. thank you to all of the witnesses for being here. it's good to see some of you again. it's a real pleasure to be here to discuss one of the founding tenants of our -- tenets of our democracy the right to vote. the strength that this democracy truly depends on the participation of the american people. like my colleagues, i think that it's incredible disturbing at the very least and dangerous for the trump administration to continue to take measures to weaken voting rights. and it's really unfortunate that they're focusing on actual serious threats to our democracy that are posed by frorn foreign attacks on our election infrastructure. the president is actually trying to manufacturer false evidence of massive voter fraud to justify his attempts of voter suppression. while we must fight the horrible shelby county decision, we can't

solely remain on defense and i think that what we need to do is also focus on expanding an increasing opportunities to voter participation. so i'm proud that my home state of illinois just became the tenth state, along with the district of columbia to approve automatic voter registration. yeah. it's why i support legislation to expand reforms nationwide and it's also why i introduced the preregistration of voters everywhere act, which is an act that will help voters become more sievically -- civically engaged. if we allow voters to become preregistered to vote at the age of 16, we have a real chance to improve voter participation, to strengthen voting rights for americans across the country. ms. tennant, welcome again. it's good to see you. >> thank you. >> you discussed your home state's modernization of the

election process, and currently 20 states including illinois and west virginia, allow people to preregister to vote prior to the age of 18. could you please discuss how engaging young people prior to the age of 18 can influence voter engagement. >> yes, it is very important as i talked about in my opening statement, when you have registered voters, you have that participation level ready to be enacted and it's almost as if like come on in, you're part of the team now. and i think it's especially important for teenagers, for young voters to say do i belong here, am i allowed to be here. and i think that with preregistration you have that and for a couple of reasons. they feel, yes, they're a part of it. and maybe even to use a term the reverend might use or the teenagers might use, if they experience fomo this will certainly help them. fomo, it's the fear of missing out. we don't want people to miss out on elections.

if you get registered at the age of 16, we're going to where they are, right? where are they? the dmv because they want to get that driver's license. if they get registered here they'll automatically be registered when they turn 18. it'll be more convenient and a whole lot easier for them and so that's -- that's why it's important. what we even do in west virginia, you can register at the age of 17 and vote in the primary election at age 17 if you are going to be 18 on or before the general election. so those are ways to encourage young people to get involved. >> thank you. miss ifill, welcome. you addressed the unfortunate historical context and its impact on voter suppression within the black community specifically. according to the pugh pew research center, nearly 35% of black el visible voters are young people. do you think that engaging young people during their high school

years would effect overall voter turnout, not just in african-american communities but in black and brown communities as well? >> i absolutely think so and this is why i think it's so important to find these opportunities to affirmatively register people to vote or bring people into the electorate. it goes hand in hand with the protection of voters once they are registered. what you don't want is a bait and switch. what will make young people even more cynical is to register them to vote and then have them subjected to the kind of voter suppression tactics that we're seeing around the country which are not just voter i.d. laws. moving polling places and redistricting in ways that essentially disenfranchise them. so i think the two pieces have to be knit together. there has to be an aggressive effort to engage young people early in high school, give them opportunities to engage civically. i'm of the belief that they're the same way that people go to the post office, young men for selective service when they turn 18, all young people should go to the post office and register to vote when they turn 18. any means of automatically registering young people is critically important but i also

think it goes hand in hand with ensuring that, once they are registered, guaranteeing them that their right to vote is protected, that they're able to participate in the political process, that their vote is able to count and they're not subject to the kind of tactics that we've seen through the country that try to ensure that registered voters don't have power. >> i think what you speak to is incredibly powerful. we had an issue in chicago when our chinatown area, not an attempt at voter disenfranchisement but really a leftover legacy of hundreds of years in the city where chinatown was divided at the state level between multiple representations so that these two blocks of chinatown was in this district, these two blocks were over there and they never were able to elect a member from the community to represent them. that's working to be fixed. we have some of the first asian americans elected in automatic races.

it's wrong that it took until i was elected when we have had -- the first asian elected to office. we have the only chinatown the united states that's still growing. it's a different community than in the traditional black and brown communities but it's certainly one that's a real issue and we need to make sure of that in addition to the early registration, people can go vote and see a difference in what the vote -- >> the community also protected by the voting rights act and was protected also by preclearance and that's part of why we need hand in hand the registration and the access and then also the tools to vigorously protect. >> exactly. >> mr. saenz, am i saying that correctly? you laid out the challenges for latinos voting today. as you noted latinos are one of the fastest growing demographics of eligible voters and i know that this particular population is well-known as being particularly young. nearly half of u.s. born latinos

are younger than 18. can you speak to the benefits of programming which involves them early on in the democratic process such as preregistration and also perhaps anything that's doing that ties preregistration to increase civic engagement. >> i think it would have a tremendously positive effect because of the youth in the community, because of the connection to schooling, when you reach them when they're still in high school and are able to preregister them, when it's coupled with good civics education, i think it could have a particular impact in the latino community because so many of our u.s. citizen youth may be the children of immigrants who are not yet naturalized, not yet able to vote. they therefore may not see in their families an example of voter participation, so having that provided to them through high school, through the dmv, through the kinds of things that youth engage in collectively could be very positive and encouraging future participation in elections.

>> thank you. and also, is there any -- i don't know if there's data on this, but i grew up, even though i was born in america and born overseas and i didn't speak english until i was 8-year-old, spent a lot of my youth translating for my mother, she became a citizen in her 50s and just the role of young people in communities where there is a large immigrant population, whether it's the asian american community or the latino community or even african-american community where sometimes it's a young person who actually -- if they're registered to vote are the ones who will encourage their parents who might not have gone to the polls otherwise. >> there are millions of eligible but not yet naturalized citizens in the latino community and you're exactly right. if the children become engaged as native born u.s. citizens in the electoral process that may become an encouragement for their parents to take the step to naturalize so that they themselves can register to vote and participate.

>> and even if they are already citizens, the parents sometimes, when you're that first generation immigrant, you're worried about working and -- you just don't have the time and it's not something that you even participate in because it's not been a tradition. sometimes it takes the children to -- >> yes. that's absolutely right and it is a continuum. i totally agree with miss ifill. you have to start with making registration easier and you have to move to making sure access to the ballot is secure and accessible for everyone and you have to ensure that you have electoral structures that permit a meaningful vote to be cast. the worst thing is for those youth or their parents to believe their vote doesn't count because they continually see their candidates lose as a result of at large election systems or gerrymandering of districts to prevent minorities from having a meaningful vote. >> thank you. reverend, did you want to speak a little bit to this idea of allowing 16-year-olds to preregister within a community

like yours in detroit? you have a large naacp branch there. >> absolutely. thank you, senator. appreciate your work. we have a large latino community there as well. and a large arab community, detroit and dearborn has the largest muslim population outside the middle east. let me suggest this and i'll answer your question, but i want to say this for the record and i have to say this, senator, because i wouldn't be who i am if i didn't say this. my folks expect me to say this. so i'm going to say it. that is -- first of all, there was a study done by the loyola university in which justin leavitt found that out of

one billion votes cast between 2000 and 2014, out of one billion votes cast only 31 were cases of voter fraud, 31 out of a billion. between 2000 and 2014. there would be much more weight given to a commission on integrity if the same commission was concerned about russian interference with the electoral process of the nation, yet the same president and the same composition of the commission is disavowing any connection to that at all. yet, all of the intelligence agencies of the nation have said that there was interference with our election. so that right there delegitimizes anything they would bring to the table. so when you ask the question of whether or not young people at 16 should be engaged, no question about it. when young people graduate from

high school, they should be given a diploma and a temporary voter card, registration card. they can't vote then but they should be given a diploma and a card that says i'm getting ready should be given a diploma and a card that says i'm getting ready to vote with some tenets of why it's important to vote on it. that should be across america. at every school. all of us should have that. in addition to the fact that we in detroit have what we call the abcs of voting. voter registration, voter mobilization, voter participation. there has to be a holistic approach. the attorney general of the united states of america is almost gleeful when it comes to pulling back on voter registration and protection and enforcement. it's almost like he's having -- i won't say it, but it's like he's overjoyful and gleeful at pulling back. many of us in the

african-american community view this time as another reconstruction to the degree that if you understand the history of america, i know you do, in the 1876 election of tilden and hayes there was a compromise made of 1877 in which one individual would get the election of presidency, if, in fact, certain things were done down south. meaning to pull back the advancements that african-americans had made. it was a dilution of their power, it was a taken away of all the advancements that they had made and also indicated that the north would not enforce any of the laws, that would protect the rights of african-americans. we've just experienced eight years of barack obama. there is a backlash. let's just be honest. there's a backlash to everything

that has been done relative to this. our nation has become a more black and brown whether we like it or not, that's the way of the world. it doesn't make us anything other than the way that's -- that intimidates people. that intimidates the president and the attorney general relative to the emphasizes that they have. in line with that as you can see the power to pull back and it has to be holistic. pull back voter registration, pull back the emphasis of voter enforcement, pull back the doj's emphasis relative to texas and north carolina, pull back enforcing the consent degrees in police department, pull back the militarization of police departments relative to how they engage, pull back. that's the same thing that was done in 1877, pull back.

so in 2017 we're announcing a pull back and so you cannot separate what has occurred from what is occurring and it all has a definite effect to the degree that is designed to intimidate, to frustrate and to eliminate the vote. when you beat the people down so much and you make it so difficult for them to access the polls, who wants to go? who wants to stand in line? who wants to go to a poll and they've been changed and nobody notified them? how many seniors want to drive and use money that they use for pharmaceutical products and food to have to pay for state issued i.d.s when they're driver's license or social security card and they've been voting in the same place for 20, 30, 40, 50 years. that is an affront to all of us as americans. that's not a black thing, a brown thing, a white thing, a yellow thing, that's the right thing. the right thing is for us to

engage in a process that brings everybody to the table beginning when our young people are in school. when they walk across that stage, two things, your diploma and your voter registration or temporary voter participation card. that means you are in now. everybody -- and that's not a partisan issue, that's an american issue. and so i think that we can resolve this but it has to be holistic. if we improve the voting process and we still got these other issues, senator, we still got a problem. if we resolved those other issues, and we can't vote, you know we got a problem. i'm simply saying it's going to require all of us to be committed. i like what senator warren said when she said oversight, oversight, oversight because these folks are working out of sight to make sure that they can take back what they think they

have lost. when i hear let's make america great again, i don't know what period in american history they talking about and who they talking about to the degree that are you talking about antebellum period, reconstruction period, are you talking about 1930s and 40s, '50s when none of us were on tv. what part of make america great you talking about? we really want to make america great let's make it fair and just. >> i don't think i can top that. i yield back. >> thank you very much. thank you reverend anthony for giving us a wonderful close to a very important hearing. i want to just note for the record we had 16 members of our caucus that joined us today. democratic senators, many of whom, have introduced legislation like senator duckworth and most of us who have signed on to cosponsor those efforts because this is foundational to our democracy and freedom, whether voting is

suppressed by the efforts of a foreign country or by governments in our own country, either way, it's got to stop. and so i'm hopeful that by taking this opportunity and having this discussion that our senate republican colleagues in the majority sharing the committees will be willing to join with us in formal hearings on legislation that will actually create more opportunities for people to vote, more integrity in the vote, more resources for training, for equipment, those things that will allow us to be able to fully say to everyone as an american citizen that you have the right to vote and that we mean it. so thank you very much.

president trump spoke at . >> [inaudible conversations]

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network at c-span 2. mitch mcconnell said this week that he intends to bring the cassidy-graham health care proposal to the floor tonight for a vote. they id we'll also look at other proposals to change the current individual insurance market. our program begins at 8:00 eastern over on c-span, online at c-span.org or on the free app. there are a number of items facing end of the month deadlines. as we mentioned, the senate intending to vote on the latest attempt to change the health care law. also, both the house and senate are expected to take up legislation reauthorizing funding for a children's health program known as chip and

working on funding faa programs. watch live coverage of the house on c-span and the senate on c-span 2. sunday night on after words, "new york times" magazine contributor suzie hanson on her travels abroad. >> there's definite that question of are we exceptional. there's also the question of why had i never thought this was a form of propaganda. why had i never stopped to question where was this coming from. one thing that i was realizing -- this took a long time to realize, in fact, is that the very language we used when we talked about foreign countries had been kind of determined for us a very long

time ago. we tended to look at countries in the east as were they catching up with us or were they behind us. what that does is that prevents you from being able to see the country on its own terms. >> sunday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 2's book tv. a decisiiscussion on how to provide better access and specialized care for veterans with spinal cord injuries and diseases. the group paralyzed veterans of america hosted the event late last month. it's just over two-and-a-half hours. >> all right, so, before we have dr. baligh yehia come up and give what will be great keynote remarks, i want to start the morning off with having a conversation with you about something that'sea